Highlights

Amazon is buying Wi-Fi device maker Eero, helping the online retailer expand its line of smart home gadgets.

Eero, founded in San Francisco five years ago, sells $200 (roughly Rs. 14,200) devices that can spread Wi-Fi throughout a home. Rival Google already sells similar devices.

Seattle-based Amazon did not say how much it is paying for Eero. The deal is expected to be completed sometime in the first half of this year.

Amazon has been growing its smart home gadgets in recent years: Its voice-activated Echo devices have been a hit for the company, and last year it paid about $839 million to buy Ring, the maker of Wi-Fi-connected video doorbells.

Eero, was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San-Francisco. It has raised $90 million from First Round Capital, Menlo Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Initialized Capital, Homebrew Ventures and others, according to a TechCrunch report.

“We are incredibly impressed with the Eero team and how quickly they invented a Wi-Fi solution that makes connected devices just work,” said Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices and Services. “We have a shared vision that the smart home experience can get even easier, and we're committed to continue innovating on behalf of customers.”

“From the beginning, Eero's mission has been to make the technology in homes just work,” said Nick Weaver, Co-Founder and CEO of Eero. “We started with Wi-Fi because it's the foundation of the modern home. Every customer deserves reliable and secure Wi-Fi in every room. By joining the Amazon family, we're excited to learn from and work closely with a team that is defining the future of the home, accelerate our mission, and bring Eero systems to more customers around the globe.”